After turning up at Souths on Chalmers last week, one week early for the launch of the new Simmers Bistro, my red-haired Blog Buddy (RHBB) and I managed to get the date right and at 6pm on Tuesday night we arrived in the same outfits as the previous week (I did not wash mine, RHBB may have, but I didn't think it necessary) - and this time we were at the right place at the right time, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

We were greeted by Sarah who will be front of house at the new

bistro, bright and charming she should be just right for the job.

We were served some yummy food and the duck was a standout.

I loved one of the waiters, young, enthusiastic and happy in the job.

We stood out on the balcony and across the road the team was training under floodlights and the bright green of the turf visible between the two buildings looked quite magical. My photo did not work because of the street and flood lights unfortunately.. 

I think the balcony will prove to be a perfect place in warmer weather to sit out and watch the activity on the street and across the oval.

We left after about an hour and decided to go for some Chinese at the Wah Fung in Regent Street. This place is a favourite with the local, cabbies and now me. 

We had a HUGE bowl of short soup, really well flavoured. 

To follow I thought it would be good to have a bit of a naff dish of Sweet and Sour Pork - but how good was that! That is the thing, something which originally tastes good is then transformed into something pretty yuck and then it loses cred in the flavour stakes. Well, after a previous visit, my favourite dishes there are now Duck san choy bow, Short soup, Fried rice and Sweet & Sour pork. I need to point out that I consider myself a bit of an expert on Chinese food and here I am extolling the above dishes - oh well, there you go - so much for being precious about food.

I know that much of what I have written so are has involved food, but that is to change - life is not just about eating (oh really, who said that?) and I want to show more about this amazing place - more will be coming about the small funky shops and businesses, the people and what is going on behind closed doors.

Just a small side note - doing this blog is proving to be such fun and has opened the doors to meeting people who are as enthusiastic about Redfern as I am - how lucky I feel to be here at this point in time. If you have any comments please send them to me.